GRAVE'S WAR BOOK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17146, 31 December 1929, Page 2

GRAVE'S WAR BOOK

ASTONISHING [ i REFERENCES TO AUSTRALIANS "Good-bye to All That," aji graphy by -Robert Graves, .publislied'ani London last month by Jonathan Cape,, is an astonishingly irank ; boot, that wilil -arouse controversy and .criticism in quarters other than that mentioned in last, week's cabls message. Copies of the book show that it does not belie the cabled statements about it when it appeared in London As was mentioned at that time many of the stories told by Graves of bis experiences xin English preparatory schools, at Charterhouse School, and as an officer of the Royal Welsh'Fusiliers in France irom 1915 to IUIB are unprintable in the average newspaper. Gravo3 has many hard and brutal things to say about the English foMic-School system and he relates appalling stories" of happenings in .war-; time in France and*Flanders in the most matter-of-fact way. Regarding the matters mentioned in the cable message, it must be said that, Graves makes it tolerably clear .that 'jKis; stories about the killing of prisoner? were in the main current gossip amongst soldiers. "In the instructors' mess (at the Havre 'Bull Ring') the ".chief subjects of conversation besides local' and technical talk were morale, the .reliability of various divisions in battle, .the vahie of different training methods, and, war morality, with particular reference to atrocities. ..." • "Atrocities. Prcpaganda reports of atrocities were, we agreed, ridiculous. As for atrocities against soldiers, the difficulty was to know where to draw the line."... For true atrocities, that is, personal rather than military violations of the code of war, there were ffew| opportunities. The most obvious opportunity was in the interval .between .surrender of prisoners and their arrival (or non-arrival) at headquarters. And it was an opportunity of which advantage 'was 1 only too often-taken. Nearly every instructor in the mess knew of specific cases when prisoners had .been murdered on the way back. The commonest motives were it seuns, revenge for the death of friends or relations, jealousy of the prisoners' pleasant trip to a comfortable prison camp in England, military enthusinsm, ibar of being suddenly overpowered by the prisoners, or, more I simply, not wanting to be bothered with, the escorting job. In any of these cases the- conductors would report on arrival ■ at headquarters that a German shell had killed the prisoners; no questions would lie asked. . . .

"The troops that had the worst re- | potations for acts of violence against 1 prisoners were, the Canadians (and later tht Australians). With the Canadians I the motive was said to be revenge for 1 n Canadion found crucified with bayonets through his. hands find feet in/a; ; feermsn trerch. This atrocity was neverIs substantiated, nor did we .the? uterr freely circulated that the Ca'na-, dians crucifiiil a German' officer in re-; vence shortly afterwards. \ '.■''■: "Of tin Australians the only thing l 1 to be sail was that they were two generations removed from the days, ! ' of Ralph Rasbleigh and JMarcus Clark. \ ! ■ "How far this reputation for _ateoci- § ti«s was, deserved and .how far it was: due to the overseas hflbjt of bragpjnp | «M leg-pulling wv) could not decide. ,'. We only knew that to have committed ■' airocities against prisoners ;was, among; the oversea-, men. and even among some I British troops, a boast, not' a icori*es-> % Ben." it Graves then gives examples df .atrocK l,g| ti« claimed bv .j&vCanaflifm^k^flftd^, ■s having been committed by thcv killed their prisoners bombs. He also (throws in <f the Algerian who, when r a headquairte ! r,s 900 k Jfrfcoj iiha habit of glwng "'him a! occasionally, that he Could

have his usual gift if he brought in the' iiead of .a "Fritz," duly went out and got his .head and received his pot of jam When, he delivered the .goods. ,;